WittKieffer Celebrates International Women’s Day 2020

Since the early 1900’s, numerous countries, corporations, networks, and media outlets have observed International Women’s Day to promote gender parity and celebrate the many achievements of women. No one government, organization, or special interest group claims ownership over IWD; it truly is an international celebration.

This year’s theme, #EachforEqual, asks how each of us will “help forge a gender equal world.” WittKieffer is a proud supporter of IWD and champions the #EachforEqual ideal in every aspect of our work.

Our Thought Leadership

Throughout the year, WittKieffer promotes gender equity through our thought leadership, driven by the hands-on experience of our consultants. Following are some of our most recent examples.

In September, Consultant Lisa Meyer attended WittKieffer’s 6th Annual Women’s Leadership in Enrollment Management Reception, an event held in conjunction with the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) Annual Conference. In her summary of the event, Lisa explains why networking events, especially those supporting women leadership, are absolutely relevant and necessary in today’s society.

In Healthcare Executive‘s November/December 2019 cover story, Managing Partner and Healthcare Practice Leader Donna Padilla discussed how moving more women into leadership means addressing the “pipeline problem,” in which fewer women than men get hired into initial managerial roles, in order to effect real, systematic change.

In an article featured on WittKieffer’s website, firm principals Joyce De Leo, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Schroetlin address the slow pace at which leadership diversity has progressed in academic medicine. (For instance, only 19 percent of permanent deans in medical schools are women.) Joyce and Jeff offer several best practices to ensure a more diverse candidate pool when recruiting new leadership. As noted in the article, employing these tactics has proven successful for WittKieffer; “our placement rate for diverse and/or women leaders at academic medical centers, for example, is more than 50 percent higher than the average representation of these leaders.”

Our Support of Gender Parity

In 2019, WittKieffer announced its founding sponsorship of The Equity Collaborative, a program developed by the Carol Emmott Foundation to further gender parity in healthcare leadership. The program, a collaborative of 13 large healthcare systems from across the country, currently works to share best practices to increase equity throughout their leadership ranks and to influence other health organizations to do the same.

WittKieffer is proud of our commitment to making progress towards gender equity in the workplace. Reach out to us on social media and tell us how your organization is supporting the #EachforEqual campaign this month and throughout the year.